from Dan Shaughnessy at Sports Illustrated,

The NHL rarely gets it right. Professional hockey is a consensus Number Four (and we don’t mean Bobby Orr 4) whenever we get around to ranking sports that grip the American mind. Like Ringo, hockey is always the caboose, rarely taken seriously and unable to compete with John, Paul and George.

But now hockey owns New Year’s Day the way baseball owns the Fourth of July and football owns Thanksgiving. Sure, there’s still plenty of college grid action on the first day of the year, but many big bowls have been pushed back in the name of ratings and rankings. The NHL has stepped in with the Winter Classic which will be held this year at Fenway Park, featuring the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Outdoor hockey brings the sport to its roots. Most of the players who make it to the NHL spent time skating on ponds, rivers, or open-air rinks. Putting the world’s best players outdoors is decidedly old school and makes for great television. It’s the Currier & Ives effect. Even the neutral zone trap looks good inside a snow globe.

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